Enola Gay's Painting SB, a newbs journey...Updated Oct 30

[Enola_Gay]

Hello everyone! I've been lurking for a long time, as CA is a great source of inspiration and motivation, so I decided to finally start participating. I've wanted to try my hand at painting for a long time, and today decided to stop wishing and start doing. I'm starting out in acrylics, as it seems the most time/money efficient, and below is my first piece.
I'm planning on doing one piece every day or two, depending on how time permits. I'm hoping to get plenty of advice on how to improve, be it how/what/when/where to paint, or anything else. Don't worry about hurting my feelings, I know I suck and I want to suck less as time goes on!

[shiek]

Hey Enola Gay, thanks for the post on my disney garu drawing. I like the banana rendering, keep at it!

I think you might suffer from the same problem I do, which is being scared of using higher and lower intensities of the colors you're painting with. It makes the piece less dramatic. Unless of course you're painting a banana subject that is in very neutral general ambient lighting. Then I'm just way off...

Regardless, keep painting!

-shiek

[guitarjames]

hey ,
Um when painting dont just use white and black to make lighter and darker use diffrent colours and listen to shiek about what he said. Here's a good thing on acrylics .http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/main.php?id=borg

keep it up .james.

[Enola_Gay]

shiek: I think your right, so today I did something that had more obvious lights and shadows so I couldn't skimp on the contrast.

guitarjames: Thanks for the link, it should come in handy! I love Proms' work!

Here's todays piece. I don't think I conveyed the radiosity effect particularly well. Definately need to get more comfortable with the paint and brushes in general. I'm horrible at blending! If anyone has any techniques or activities I should practice to fix those things, let me know!

[Enola_Gay]

I decided to take baby steps and do some greyscale studies for a while (which is ironic since I'm going through a bit of a grey period myself). Hopefully this will help me get comfortable pushing around the paint and such, without having to worry about color.